Sharpening the Edge.

The two weeks after nationals have been eventful in their own way, but not nearly as eventful as the nationals weekend so in a way it’s been restful. It’s hard to say why it’s felt restful, but if I had to guess it’s been that I’ve just been enjoying riding more than I have before that. It’s a feeling that has been expressed very well by one of Team Wisconsin’s leaders and friend Jason Kayzar. He recently wrote about the rediscovery of living in the moment that bike riding and racing can bring you. And that’s exactly where I’ve been the last few weeks. It’s not that things have been going particularly well or that anything bad has happened, I’m just enjoying the experience of life more. Read about it HERE

Collegiate Road Nats wrap up

So to recap, I had just finished 9^th in the crit and was riding pretty high after that finish. While you always want to win, there are some finishes that just get you pumped and ready to go for more. And that’s exactly how I was feeling. Even better than that was we all seemed pretty pumped and focused for the next job. I think it was nervousness going into the crit, but after the race and that night everyone seemed chilled out and ready for the RR.

Cycling has an illness and sadly the cure is not more cowbell.

So instead of finishing off my story about nationals today, I’ve decided to write about something else. Something that came from reading this article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324767004578485194028851214?mg=reno64-wsj.html?dsk=y

To summarize, the article talks about the change in cycling culture happening from the Armstrong fallout. It goes on to look into it a little deeper and examines the cycling culture; mostly based on internet sites and interviews with industry reps.

Collegiate Nationals: An end to a pre-season with success.

A few weekends ago was the collegiate national weekend out in Ogden Utah. I was lucky enough to have the UW team send me out there along with some good company, Alex Martin, Skip, and a new woman on the team Maddie Pape. There was an ITT Friday, Crit on Saturday and the big Road race Sunday.

Things started out pretty bad, I’ll be honest. A week before we were set to leave, I was coughing and wheezing with a headache. I was getting sick. I did the best I could to quarantine myself in my room and get better as fast as possible. I had to skip a few workouts but not too many as I was scheduled for some rest going into the weekend anyways. But with the cold, I wasn’t getting the best rest. But as the Monday before we set off came around I was starting to feel the sickness subside, so I was able to get things packed up and have some hope for a normal weekend.